


Sacrifice

by herbailiwick



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-28
Updated: 2013-03-28
Packaged: 2017-12-06 18:40:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/738868
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/herbailiwick/pseuds/herbailiwick
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bobby and Sam have a strange sense of what it means to pay their dues.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sacrifice

Bobby owes the universe one. Because he's had Sam for a long time. Years, good years. And it's been nice. Really, it's had its real moments of...just...things being _better_ when they're together. Sam sometimes calls just to check up on him. Sam will smile quietly if Bobby so much as brings him a cup of coffee.

Sam kisses him even if he smells too much like whiskey and needs a shower. The wheelchair didn't faze Sam. Sam liked Bobby's panic room up until it became a place for them to panic about _Sam_. Sam was tall and weird and didn't like to watch TV and thought Bobby was _cool_ , actually thought that, wouldn't know cool if it bit him on his pert ass, but thought the best example of the term was  _Bobby_.

Sam's somewhere inside his own meat suit, but Lucifer's in there too, and Lucifer's hurting Dean, and Bobby knows he can do what Dean probably couldn't, so he shoots. He shoots and shoots, and what he gets for it is a snapped neck. But he'd had to try. He'd owed the universe one.

***

Sam owes the universe one. Because Bobby's sweet and patient. Bobby sits on the desk near him when he's reading and cracks jokes. Bobby blindfolds him and has him guess exotic ingredients with a combination of sensory clues and riddle-wrapped hints. Bobby gets him coffee that doesn't taste all that great, but it's Bobby's coffee, and that makes it awesome.

So when he breaks, when the Trickster has his way that first Wednesday, when Sam starts to scare himself, he stays away from Bobby, doesn't want his comfort or his calls or his weird urgency.

And when they're back in Florida, he takes the chance that it's really the Trickster trying to look like Bobby and stabs him. Only, the body doesn't disappear right away, it lingers, and that's terrifying. And Sam remembers why exactly he owes the universe one. 

Bobby would never sink so low, Sam knows. 

Of course, it _is_ the Trickster. It isn't  really Bobby. Bobby's speech patterns had seemed slightly off, and the use of the phrase, "You break my heart, kid," is glaringly reminiscent of what Bobby had said outside the car after their first meeting with the Trickster.

But Sam had still stabbed without being 100% certain. He owes the universe one for Bobby.

***

Sam owes the universe one again. 

Bobby's been great to him over the course of the past year and a half, objectively. He's let him stay, like Sam's not some kind of freak, like he's not that different. He's researched alongside Sam, slept with Sam, pat him on the back, reminisced about Dean.

Sam doesn't really talk much about Dean because he feels this sense of wrongness about his lack of feeling for Dean, like a picture frame hanging slightly askew, and if Bobby noticed he doesn't make a big deal out of it.

Sam agrees that nothing would scar his vessel more. Because, honestly, as much as he used to love Dean and prioritize him way above Bobby, it's Bobby who he's been hanging out with in The Year Dean Thought He Was Dead, it's Bobby who accepts him and doesn't even mention his soul and who worries but doesn't let that affect their games of chess and their jokes. Bobby thinks Sam is funnier, now, usually. Or maybe it's just that Sam's cracking jokes more often. Sometimes, he apparently crosses the line, and Bobby sort of raises a brow and Sam adjusts accordingly.

Sam would follow Bobby's orders. He _does_. And normally, Bobby can trust him.

Except, it's just...he needs to keep his soul out. If it's how things have got to go, it's how things have got to go. It's not that he doesn't regret it, it's not that he thinks he'd be able to live with it if he ended up saddled with his soul again, but he's making it so he'll be soul-free forever. It won't matter.

And he owes the universe one. He's out of the Cage. He's just gotta make sure the Cage stays out of _him_. And he's gotta get rid of Bobby to do that, even though Bobby's been awesome. Bobby's been sweet. Bobby's been _Bobby_ , and let him be Sam.

But, then, that's why they call it sacrifice.


End file.
